Need help with TW "widescreen" movies on demand

[jd91]

I'm not a complete newbie, but have a need for some help on something.  I've got a 16x9 HDTV and the SA 8300HD.  The last 3 or 4 times i've ordered an on-demand movie from TW i've selected the "widescreen" option for ordering, thinking it would give me the proper 16x9 ratio for my screen.  However, what i've found is i get an extremely narrow strip of picture, with very large black bars on top and bottom of the screen (maybe the top and bottom thirds of screen).

I tried playing around a little bit with my settings, but couldn't get it fixed properly.  Based on my playing around with What it appears to be is that it's getting broadcast in 4x3 ratio with letterbox bars on top and bottom.  Then, since my box is set to "stretch 4x3 pictures" in order to fill up the 16x9 screen, it's stretching this already letterboxed image and making it worse by stretching it.

How can i get around this?  I ended up having to put the settings on zoom in order to make it less annoying.  Even on a bigger TV, having only about a third or a little more of the vertical space be filled with image is horrible.

Can anyone offer any advice here?  Is this a result of how TW broadcasts these movies?  Is it something with my setup?  Should I just stay away from TW movies, or stop choosing the widescreen version?  Seems stupid to offer widescreen if it doesn't work.

[GBK]

if it's stretching it horizontally it sounds like it's Letterboxed not Widescreen.  some Widescreen movies will still have top and bottom black bars that's because they're in "Ultra" Widescreen the 16x9 format is close to 1.78 - 1.85:1 but the 2.35:1 movies will still have bars.

[jd91]

I don't know that it's stretching it, but it sure appears that way.  As for whether or not it's letterboxed or widescreen, i don't know, but TW advertises it as "Wide" format --- I'm assuming that's so it's enhanced for viewing on a 16x9 screen.

Has anyone else seen this problem?  Is it possible that they are actually broadcasting the Wide versions of their movies in a 4x3 format, then my box automatically detects it as a 4x3 and stretches it to the 16x9?  I would think if they are selling a "wide" movie they would broadcast it in 16x9 format.  However, the reason i'm thinking it's not is because normally if you push the remote button to change aspect ratios and you're on a 16x9 (HD) channel, it will tell you that the format matches the broadcast type and won't let you cycle through the stretch, zoom, sidebars... However, when viewing this "wide" movie, i was actually able to cycle through those various aspect ratios.

[e-man]

I noticed this on one of the movies I purchased that was wide.  What I initially had was the sidebars and the bars on top.  So, I used the zoom feature and watched the movie on the whole 16x9 screen without any of the "stretch" effects.

[jd91]

Yeah, that's essentially what i had to do was use the zoom to make it watchable.  A completely unreasonable workaround if you ask me.  What's the point of having "wide" versions of the movies available if they don't work well on 16x9 TVs?

[kevbeck122]

The only on demand channel that will give you a true 16:9 picture is the Movies on Demand in HD channel 500.  Every other on demand channel will only send out a 4:3 letterbox picture which you have to zoom to make it fill the entire screen.

[mhz40]

IMO, it's simply letterbox.  You zoom the 3x4 and end up filling most, if not all of the 16x9 screen.  I like it because very little gets cropped off on the edges.  Because of the zoom, the PQ is a little worse than the otherwise very acceptable 4x3 SD look, but nothing I worry about once I get 'into' the movie.

[Chinatown]

Checking the internet Movie Data Base, for a specific title will give you aspect ratio.